PORT ANGELES — Howard V. “Mike” Doherty will not seek a fifth consecutive four-year term as a Clallam County commissioner.
Doherty, 71, did not file for re-election by the deadline at 4:30 p.m. Friday. His current term expires at the end of this year.
Doherty has represented the western third of the county in consecutive terms since 1999.
The Port Angeles Democrat also was a commissioner between 1976 and 1979.
Prior to that, Doherty chaired the Clallam County Board of Freeholders, which designed a process that resulted in the drafting and passage of the county’s Home Rule Charter.
When reached by cellphone from Eugene, Ore., on Friday, Doherty said he decided not to run because he had become frustrated with a growing “dysfunction” on the board in recent years.
He cited the board’s lack of response to the recently released investigative report on employee complaints against Community Development Director Sheila Roark Miller and its unwillingness to schedule a community meeting on the impacts of climate change as outlined in a Jamestown S’Klallam tribe report, among other factors.
“Generally, some of the values I represent have not been shared by colleagues — things like more open government, transparency, accountability,” Doherty said.
“Some of those things I don’t think we’re geared to as much as we used to be.”
